St. Ignatius cashes in on Joliet Catholic miscues for CCL/ESCC Green championship

JOLIET – Turnovers and penalties killed Joliet Catholic on Friday night, contributing greatly to their 23-10 loss to St. Ignatius, and also to their loss of the Chicago Catholic League/East Suburban Catholic Conference Green title as well.

More than the loss of the plaque, it’s not a good combination to have on the final night of the regular season.

“The only silver lining is, it’s Week 9 and not Week 10,” Hilltoppers coach Jack Jaworski said. “If that happens next week, we’re going home.”

Three turnovers and 55 yards in penalties, most of them at extremely inopportune times, were the self-inflicted wounds. The Wolfpack merely twisted the knife.

It was a little uncharacteristic for us, especially the last three, four weeks. We’ve been playing clean football, but stuff happens. Hopefully we got it out of our system.”

—  Jack Jaworski, Joliet Catholic football coach

For the Wolfpack (6-3, 3-0), it’s their second-straight conference crown. They won the White bracket last year, while Joliet Catholic won the Orange.

“We set out a goal this year,” St. Ignatius coach Matt Miller said, “and now you’re sitting here as Green champions.”

That result wouldn’t have been a good bet in the early going.

The Hilltoppers (6-3, 2-1) scored first and second in the opening quarter via a 36-yard touchdown pass from Andres Munoz to Adrian Washington and Patrick Durkin’s 26-yard field goal. The JCA defense, meanwhile was stuffing the Wolfpack attack.

Everything appeared to be going according to plan, as far as the Hilltoppers saw it.

Then St. Ignatius’ grind-it-out offense took over.

They closed the gap to 10-7 when Ohio State commit lineman Justin Scott bowled over several Hilltoppers en route to a 17-yard touchdown run 1:25 into the second quarter.

“They don’t make a ton of people like that in the world,” Jaworski said. “He’s an interesting weapon.”

It became 15-10 when the Wolfpack made the Hilltoppers pay for Munoz’s interception, the first of three turnovers plus a muffed punt. Munoz was picked off by Clement Carey, who returned the ball 19 yards to the JCA 42.

Liam Hynes finished the drive by swerving several times along the left sideline for an 11-yard touchdown run. The Wolfpack planned to kick an extra point, but one of six Hilltoppers penalties in the first half moved the ball to the 1, from which Tapia ran in a two-point conversion.

“It was a little uncharacteristic for us, especially the last three, four weeks,” Jaworski said of the miscues. “We’ve been playing clean football, but stuff happens. Hopefully we got it out of our system.”

The Hilltoppers’ H.J. Grigsby (13 carries, 107 yards) got loose on their first drive of the third quarter, until he was held to 2 yards on the fourth-and-3 inside the red zone. From their 18, the Wolfpack put together a 13-play drive that took 7:40 and culminated in Hynes’ second touchdown, a 5-yard scamper around left end.

Joliet Catholic’s next two drives finished with a 4-yard loss by Grigsby and a fumble on a late exchange between him and Munoz when hope remained alive on the home sideline.

“They gave us a little bit of a different look (on defense), brought a blitz, there was miscommunication, and the ball ended up on the ground,” Jaworski said.

It summed up the night for both teams.